The simple fact is that, were it not for slavery, white supremacy, and the legacy of “scientific racism,” America would have a national, single-payer healthcare system…
Jonathan Metzl discussed the modern implications of this issue in his book “Dying of Whiteness.” Some people are willing to die themselves if it means it will also deprive someone else the first person deems undeserving or unworthy of aid.
I submit that the connecting zeitgeist is "laziness." It's all very weird, but "lazy negroes" sort of blends in with the "pull self up by bootstraps" idea I think Thom did a piece on a while back: "God helps those who help themselves...." Weird, because the negroes who were so necessary to the economy of the South that the lordships went to war, were stereotyped as "lazy." Weird.
According to Bernie Sanders, Medicare for all could save $450 billion dollars a year by an analysis done by Yale and the University of Florida and Maryland. Right wingers strike again.
Small wonder that Hitler turned to Henry Ford, Jim Crow, Indigenous Land Theft / Genocide, and American Eugenics as his Nazi template for how "it" should be done.
Smaller wonder that every race-hostile crackpot in American history has Germanic DNA, including the former President of these United States and his papa Fred.
Darlin' I vote for the DNA. The Northern Europeans who self-selected to invade America I will stand by (half of my family!) were stone authoritarian stock.
Hell no! I've used my experience of being appalled and perplexed at the fixed mental pattern of my mother in many postings in this forum. I have described her as "Born a Bircher and died a Birther." (plenty educated,BTW: you can't generalize the "stupid.") I am sure she would have dyed her whole body MAGA red if she'd lived long enough. AND, yes, I think she was DNA hard-wired like that and it is traceable back through generations to: you guessed it: religious colony with roots in Bavaria. Thanks for asking!
A certain selection of white: the followers of preachers that, as Garrison Keillor once said: "were tossed out of every decent country in Europe." Now known as "authoritarian followers."
Every race hostile has Germanic DNA? Which means that all Germans are racists. How about the racists Latino's, like Fuentes and Tarrio. The south is populated by racists, that have not a drop of German in their DNA, while there are millions of Germans who are not racists.
Racism is not in the DNA, it is a result of one's environment, bigotry is learned, not embedded in DNA.
I have great great grandparents one was a German Catholic, the other a German Jew. My mother, after her divorce dated a black man, my sister his nephew Paul. I grew up acceptive of all, including gays, Jews, every one except "commies". Then again I grew up in a project.
AHA! We are down to the "nature vs nurture" eternal quandary. My claim to some credibility, on the "nature" side, is generations of experience with "temperament" of mainly horses, at birth, and long-suffering contemplation of one side of my birth family.
It has never occurred to me that "all Germans are racists," however. I apparently escaped, anyway, even though I am so white I have rosacea and need GLA supplementation (borage oil, friends) But I am prejudiced that the particular selection of Northern European refugees to America may have concentrated AUTHORITARIAN genetics.
I will acknowledge that some people are born that way, not racists, but violent and murders.
Take Ted Bundy, he was adopted by a very nice and loving couple, but when he was about 8 years old, he snuck out of the bedroom window, and was seen burying something with his feet in a ditch, being dug for sewage or water on the grounds of the University of Puget Sound, and it later turned out that there was a young girl that had gone missing, and never found, in tje same area, and he is not the only one. There is the sociopathic Ayn Rand, and you can say the same for just about every serial killer, or just plain killers.
But not a whole group of peoples, it is akin to saying that all blacks, Jews, gays, Hindus, Muslims are born sociopaths and psychopaths. I refuse to believe that.
You escaped what? What is your story?
Horses aren't people, in case you didn't know. You can't apply what you observe in the equine species to the human species, except the universal sex drive, and need of the male animal to dominate, that he may then procreate.
As regards the desire to be subject to an all powerful leader, that is what religion is all about, submission to an all powerful father figure (such as Our father which are in the sky, ..)
To into any culture, any country on earth and you find people submissive and worshipful of authoritarian tyrants, be it Niger, Malaysia, China, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Hungary and Poland, or as in America the MAGGOTS.
I don't know what your personal experience is, sounds horrible, but you can't apply it with broad strokes to all of humanity, or even a section of humanity.
Mr. Farrar, I could not help but read your exchange with Mmerose about the "nature-nurture" debate. This is stuff I taught for 4 decades in my Criminology course and Social Theory course. With regard to Ted Bundy and the topic of serial killers you mentioned. I have read a small library of stuff on this topic. Most of it entertaining, much of it bullshit as well. The best I have fallen upon is HUNTING HUMANS by a Cultural Anthropologist in Canada named Elliott Leyton. Without intending to do so; he created a new school of Criminological thought. As yet, without a name, and of course stirring up many objectors from the fraternity of Recognized Criminologists. This is true, at first, of all radically new ideas.
Just thought you might be interested. It is a great read. I put it on my student's reading list. The bookstore at my University refused to order the book. So I went to a friend in town who owned a bookstore off campus and had her order it. Unbelievable!??! Leyton also wrote a book about Children who kill their parents. I did not find this book useful.
Why did the bookstore in your university refuse to order the book?
I acknowledge that a lot of human behavior is genetic. I have a friend he was a Captain at the time, his wife was unable to have a child, so he adopted a baby, born to a waitress that was raped.
They loved the child, gave him the best that they could, and he turned out to be like his biological father. Ted Bundy was probably of the same ilk.
As a genetic genealogist I know all about epigenetics, in fact 23andme, has partners (shareholders) in PhRMA and AHIP and after you submit a DNA sample, they start pestering you with "Health Questionaires" Scare quotes because they have nothing to do with your health, they want information on your parents, where they were born and raised, and all kind of stuff that is irrelevant. They are gathering macro data, to give to their partners (they say that they don't sell your info, but they do share it with "partners".
Epigenetics can explain a lot things, maybe, but not attributing characteristics to a whole class of people.
Mankind, emphasis on man, is a violent species. Violent to other species, violent to their own, just give them an excuse to be violent, and in some deviants no excuse required.
I feel it instructive to rewind on Ayn Rand, and her role model for a superman, William Edward Hickman, a psychotic serial killer, without a conscience, she used him for the archetype of her protagonist in all of her novels.
She was, herself, a psychopath. I suspect a combination of nature and nurture, and there are a lot of them walking around. Like Donald's sons Jr and Eric, they spend a fortune to go to Africa where they can shoot lions in a cage, and feel like big men. All of that money, and still they have a huge inferiority complex.
"But not a whole group of peoples, it is akin to saying that all blacks, Jews, gays, Hindus, Muslims are born sociopaths and psychopaths. I refuse to believe that." Me too.
Can't imagine how you thought I said that.
Surely you have heard of "selective breeding" across many species. Yes, authoritarians exist across a spectrum of cultures and racial identities.
The authoritarians who worship Donald Trump happen to have a hereditary affinity to a splinter of Europeans who fled or were driven out of Europe precisely because they were fanatics. I'm not saying it's determinative or exclusive for any individual. But the inherent inclinations, across statistical numbers, I can't get away from thinking it could be a factor in the phenomenon of this Trump mania.
I can't believe that you condoned selective breeding. That was the whole agenda of Hitlers Lebensborn program. Taking "Aryan Youth" out of their environment and putting them together to breed the Aryan Youth of the future. You can breed cattle,horses, dogs for their desireable qualities, and I recognize the nurture nature argument, but people are a different thing, and you don't breed a whole nation to hate Jews or Blacks or Anything else, that is all "nurture". I refuse to believe that hatred is genetic. It is taught.
That's an extraordinary claim that the authoritarians who worship Trump happen to have a hereditary affinity to a splinter of Europeans who fled or were driven out of Europe, precisely because they were fanatics.
Who were these fanatics? Irish, Jews, Norse, even Germans. They weren't driven out of Europe because they were fanatics. They left their homes and came here, because, they were either oppressed and/or starving and unable to support themselves in Europe. One of my 2nd great grandfathers was attracted to America by recruiting agents during the Civil War. In fact lots of Germans were, and Germany was undergoing it's own internal conflicts, in fact a Catholic vs Protestant religious war
You brought in statistics, please show those statistics. While at it, how about all of those black and Hispanic Republicans and Tump Humpers, what aboutAli Alexander (born Ali Abdul-Razaq Akbar[, now there is a real Quisling, Alexander was born in 1984 or 1985, one of two children born to a Christian African-American mother, Lydia Dews,[14] and a Muslim father
Most of the Trump Humpers are from the south, and are of English and Irish ancestry, with only a few of German ancestry.
Don't tell me that the Irish were kicked out of Ireland because they were authoritarian, or the early English settlers the same.
Ireland was oppressed by the English, and dispossessed and turned into serfs to their English lord and Masters. Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army, killed 640,000 Irish and shipped 50,000 of them to the colonies as indentured servants, virtual slaves.
Germany was not a very nice place to live. It was ruled by Dukes, Barons, Princes who had life and death powers over it's subjects. The Hessians of the revolution, were peasants, sons of farmers who Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt (German: Ludwig) (15 December 1719 – 6 April 1790) was the reigning Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1768 to 1790, deep in debt conscripted his peasants and sold them to Britain for money to pay off his debts.
A second cousin four times removed, named Richard Farrar, had in his estate (died in 1860)
a tax document, and below a clock, was a white male age 21 to 50, listed as personal property, along with the clock. I presume he was Irish, and an indentured servant.
I realize that you need an explanation to account for the hateful Trumpers and neo NAZI'a, but it is not genetic, is all nurture.
The anger, angst, hostility of the right is vented towards Americans of African Descent, and the vast majority of them are Christian nationalists.
There is also a healthy contingent of Indians and Indian Americans, as well as Cubanos that are Republican Trump Humpers, the Cubanos, are children and grandchildren of the affluent upper class of Cubans, who fled Cuba, because after the revolution, they were no longer able to exploit the peasants, just like the Venezuelans who America is welcoming and will regret doing so tomorrow, as these people are very conservative Catholics and natural allies of the patriarchal, misogynistic, homophobic Trump humpers
What I think you haven't yet wrapped your head around, is the all too real culture war, the war against women, minorities, LGBT, and Jews, and yes each of their groups have Quislings, motivated by personal goals, of self enrichment, power even , like Clarence Thomas, self hatred, or like those five black cops in Baton Rouge, who killed a black motorists, anger at other blacks for making them look bad.
What went off the rails was interpretation I was talking about eugenics. I know about everything you bring up, but it's all non-responsive to my narrow historical theory about SELF-SELECTED immigrant communities.
One thing that this essay overlooks is how modern socialized medicine has been defeated without reference racism. It is worth keeping in mind that private healthcare is the only form of extortion legally allowed in the United States. Pay me or die.
It is worth keeping in mind that the earliest form of health insurance - Blue Cross/Shield - was founded by physicians themselves. That ensured their income streams would not be impacted by rising prices. Eventually the life insurance industry outcompeted the physicians programs by encouraging private sector businesses to make health insurance a worker benefit. Of course, premiums were/are kept lower through deductibles, co-pays, and benefit caps which still can bankrupt patients.
Health insurance profits encouraged the American Medical Association (AMA) of the 50s and 60s to assert that the quality of healthcare in America would crumble if universal healthcare was ever adopted. Doctor offices and hospitals would be overwhelmed by freeloaders. Waiting lines for treatment would be endless. Surgeries would be delayed, and patients would die. Some universal healthcare opponents conflated socialism with communism. Just look at the poverty and low life expectancy in the Soviet Union!
Delayed service and reduced quality of care were likely the most potent arguments to gain voter opposition to universal healthcare. Of course, this was pure gaslight - i.e., lies. I know this because I have been a member of the only universal healthcare program in America – the military. My waits in doctors’ offices are the same as the private sector – no better or worse. Access to surgery is the same – private sector specialist referrals are free too. Even as a military retiree, my out-of-pocket expenses for certain services rarely exceeds $200/year and I am 76. A few years back I was on a regimen of monthly shots for 14 months that cost $8,300 each. Can you imagine Congress agreeing to pay that much for a single injection under universal healthcare? I had surgery at Mayo Clinic this year. The cost to me was a staggering $50 for a lab test that DOD had capped the cost of, so I had to make up the difference or skip it.
Fast forward, and support for universal healthcare among physicians is now dominant within the profession. AMA no longer objects – in part because doctors and nurses are exhausted. Our rigged capitalist system is actually undermining healthcare providers’ quality of life and ability to offer top-flite healthcare. This is validated by the fact that the life expectancy in the US is lower than countries with national healthcare systems like the UK, Germany, and most other EU countries. Private insurance premiums in America are now obscenely high even with employer insurance programs. Thus, race as a justification for opposition to universal coverage has pretty much faded away as economic factors and quality of care now dominate arguments against the status quo.
I live in Wilmington, NC, the largest city on the NC coast. By any characterization, we are a small market. I needed a dermatologist, and I had to wait 4 months for an appointment. A friend had to wait 6 months for surgery for a knee replacement. Would universal healthcare increase such wait times as we have now?
Based upon other countries experience, research has shown that your access to care would likely improve. However, given the size of the US, there will always be gaps in rural areas. Nevertheless, states would be able to spread the wealth so-to-speak through pressure on Congress - if we had a national health service. State could also subsidize the federal program - if there was one.
Something to keep in mind. A major reason for there being fewer doctors in rural areas is income. With a federal programs, everybody would be paid about the same, thus, providers would not have to take a big pay cut to practice in your area as they likely do now.
Love what you have shared here! Would appreciate any insights you might have with regards to the craze of Medicare Advantage plans for retirees? There is some trickery here and,once again, Corporate America is lining their pockets with huge sums of $$$.
Medicare advantage programs usually require their permission to seek specialist services and tests like MRIs which can delay treatment - the same problem applies to prescriptions. They can deny coverage for some procedures and can turn billing for emergency services into post-treatment nightmare. So caveat emptor. You might start by Googling "how medicare advantage scams seniors." Alternatively, many employers offer their retirees the option to carry supplementary insurance programs to medicare - basically your old insurance plan coverage adjusted for Medicare coverage. One thing I would advise is talking with your primary care physician's office manager - whomever bills Advantage programs. They will know from experience the problems your doctor has had with a plan. Sadly homework is probably the best option before committing to an Advantage program because some are just outright scams.
Great Article Thom, I am aghast. I had no idea that the problem had such deep pseudo scientific roots. Forever in your debt for this excellent history. I am more disgusted than ever.
I totally envy your knowledge of history and your research. have learned so much.
I toyed with the idea of joining the Libertarian Party in 1980, even attended a recruiting meeting, but backed out because of their proposal for a Soviet Style gold standard. I didn't realize that it was a sociopathic organization and ideology.
Alexandra Pelosi , the daughter of Nancy,, is a documentarian. She has made 16 Documentaries. In one of them, I c an’t remember which it is either Right America Feeling Wronged 2009) or Outside the Bubble (2018). She toured the south. In one scene she interviewed a stereotypical toothless red neck in bib overalls living in a single wide, with trash strewn around.
She asked him about food stamps and welfare, he said he was “again it” because them lazy “nehgras” got it.
She said, but your own food stamps also, he replied, “that’s different I earned them”
Hoffman was engaged in junk science regarding "scientific" racism. He was also engaged in one of the oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is, the search for a moral superior justification for selfishness-John Kenneth Galbraith. He was ahead of the curve regarding things like tobacco and asbestos causing cancer. But he let prejudice take over with regard to skin color. Prejudice is emotional, not scientific.
Again an excellent piece Mr. Hartman. I ran into Hoffman's name when I wrote my dissertation 40+ years ago. However, I did not go into his biography deeply enough, as you did. Thank you for uncovering all this history and laying it before us. I learned a great deal from your article.
I did uncover a wish by Franklin Roosevelt to include single-payer universal healthcare, along with his introduction of single-payer Social Security Insurance for the elderly. He was nudged in the direction
of universal health care by Frances Perkins ( FDR's Secretary of Labor, who was, I believe, the first female cabinet secretary and longest serving Sec. of Labor). She also came up with the idea of Social Security and pushed him to fight for it against formidable resistance.
The reason FDR gave up on universal health care was: racism among White Americans. He knew that White Americans, especially in the South, would refuse to accept sharing health care facilities with Black Americans. So, rather than let White, racist-rejection of universal health care torpedo his entire Social Security package; he put the plan forward with no health care provision. It was a compromise; which is inherent in the nature of democratic institutions. We could have been enjoying universal health care since the 1930s; if not for White racism. White Americans deprived and harmed themselves because of their bias against their dark-skinned fellow citizens.
The gradual, all-too-slow process of allowing Black citizens increasingly into legitimate American institutional life since the 1930s, is currently fueling the frightening mostly White trend toward Fascism in the U.S. Black citizens have much clearer understanding of political power in the U.S. than Whites. Is it any wonder why Black voters mostly support the Democratic Party; even with all its ugly blemishes?
I remember President Lyndon Johnson saying when he signed the medicare bill for the elderly into law, "the Democratic Party was losing the White Southern vote for a generation." How perceptive LBJ was!
Perhaps now is the time when White Americans will get back onto the bus with their Black fellow citizens as Rosa Parks, MLK and Malcom X rise higher in the American Pantheon.
Interesting read. I’d like to suggest we turn from analyzing the past to focusing on the future. Here is an alternative to the Single Payment System that I’d like to present for consideration:
The Singular Health Care Payment System - The Singular Health Care Payment System is a simpler, fairer and more affordable alternative to America’s existing payment systems. Its goals are: (i) to simplify how Americans pay for their healthcare, (ii) make quality healthcare equally affordable to all Americans and, (iii) in the long run, reduce healthcare costs.
Here is how the Singular Health Care Payment System works. Under the Singular System, the federal government establishes healthcare accounts for every U.S. citizen. When healthcare is needed, a person pays a co-payment towards their treatment and the balance of the bill is sent to the federal agency responsible for the healthcare accounts. It pays the balance and records a debit in the amount of the shortfall in the person's healthcare account. At tax time each year, the individual is responsible for making a tax payment of up to 10% of their income towards the deficit in the account until the deficit has been eliminated. If the individual dies with a deficit in the account, then their estate is taxed up to 30% until the deficit is satisfied. If there is still a deficit remaining after the payment from the estate, then the deficit is expunged.
This system replaces Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. It is important to note that this system is not health insurance and therefore there are no premiums to pay. If a person never needs healthcare, they never pay any costs associated with healthcare. If they do need healthcare, the payment system will limit the cost to 10% of their annual income and 30% of their estate at death. Also, participation in this payment system is voluntary. Americans may choose not to participate and instead make payments for their healthcare independently or continue to use health insurance to manage their healthcare expenses.
Why 10% of your income and 30% of your estate? The goal of the Singular Movement is to make health care affordable to all Americans. To subsidize an American’s health care needs only as much as is needed and no more. The payment of 10% of an individual’s income for health care services is affordable. Keep in mind that individuals are only paying for health care services that they receive directly and when those services have been paid in full no more tax payments are made. For most Americans, this amount will be less than the lifetime premiums they or their employers pay for health insurance.
The reason for the 30% estate tax on unpaid bills, is simply that most healthcare services are incurred at the end of an individual’s life and the federal government would be unable to recoup its payments from a 10% tax on income, so a 30% estate tax would provide capacity to recoup a fair amount without over taxing an estate.
The Singular Healthcare Payment System is simple - For Americans who chose to participate in it, there is one payor, one payment plan, one co-payment regimen, and no premiums. A person can select any healthcare provider in any location so long as the healthcare provider is enrolled in the federal payment program.
The Singular Health Care Payment System is fair. Everyone pays the same percent of their income and estate towards satisfying their healthcare expenses. Although individuals with lower income may find a 10% tax more onerous than more affluent individuals, they will be able to utilize their Singular Tax Credit to satisfy their health care expenses.
The Singular Health Care Payment System is affordable. Over the span of an average American’s life, it is highly likely that the 10% tax on their income and 30% tax on their estate will satisfy most of the bills they incur during their lifetime and the amount subsidized by the federal government will be near to what it currently subsidizes through existing programs. A full assessment of the cost of this program to the government will be presented with the Singular Tax post. For the time being, trust that there is a way to responsibly implement the entire Singular System over time in a way that is sustainable and non-disruptive to our economy.
Benefits
* The Singular System will make payment for healthcare simple and affordable.
* It will give Americans health care security, knowing that they will always be able to reasonably pay for needed health care.
* It will allow all Americans to seek quality healthcare without regards to cost or insurance plan restrictions.
* It will reduce employer expenses, helping to make American companies more competitive abroad, smaller companies more competitive with larger ones, and entrepreneurship more viable for people with limited capital.
* It rewards healthful living by eliminating healthcare insurance premiums and provides an economic incentive to be healthy to avoid income and estate taxation.
* It reduces healthcare costs for most Americans as they will pay less in healthcare expenses than they do currently in healthcare insurance during their lifetime.
* It will reduce national healthcare costs over time, as Americans exercise more discretion in the health care they seek knowing that they will directly pay the bill over time. This will reduce unnecessary testing and procedures and exorbitant end of life care.
* It will reduce the amount of money the government pays towards Americans’ healthcare over time as healthcare costs will decline and Americans will pay for a larger share of their healthcare costs.
You've put a lot of thought and effort into this so you have my respect. The caveat that jumps out at me is the 30% estate tax up to the amount of the charges for end of life care.
Personally, I would shudder at the thought of needing serious medical care and being at the mercy of possibly evil, spoiled, greedy children or some other beneficiary to my estate that might be motivated to deny me that care, or even hasten the end of my life to ensure that their inheritance stays intact. Medical expenses can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars in a very short amount of time. Also, medical providers always advise people to get medical "power of attorney" drawn up as they advance in age. Children are most always the designee's.
Talk about "death panels"........could be scary! Do you have a plan for that?
This is a worthy concern and is one of the reasons I limited the tax to 30%. Nevertheless, I am sure there are unscrupulous children who would rather see their parents suffer and die than give up 30% of their inheritance. But how many? And do we fail to implement a system that betters the lives of the balance of the American population because of these miscreants? The remedy for this issue would otherwise lie with the individuals who are concerned with it, in making sure they choose someone they trust in charge of their medical directive or power of attorney. I would also expect that the insurance industry responds with insurance to cover this situation. It would be expensive, but people with estates they want to preserve for their children would have the motivation to pay for it.
Please know that the alternative healthcare payment system I'm proposing is a work in progress and I am hoping people share their concerns and ideas so that it can be modified into something that folks from across the political spectrum can support. So I thank you for letting me know your concern but also please let me know if you have any ideas to address it or of other things you'd do to improve the system.
Well, thank you Mark for the reply! Yes, your suggestion as to insurance to limit losses is plausible one. It would be gap insurance. That type is sold now on a few different levels.
For instance, I have medigap insurance to supplement my goverment Medicare parts A, B. Works great, as long as I can afford it, I will keep it.
We need people like you trying to solve our national problems. Now, if you could just get an audience in DC. I know your striving for a bipartisan solution but I think I would start looking for an ear on the D side. Wink, Wink.......
By the time a politician gets to DC, they've already been corrupted by their political party's establishment and moneyed and special interests. This was sadly apparent when the Democrats were in power and could only get the Affordable Care Act passed with significant concessions to the health insurance industry, including and most notably the elimination of the public option. Our best hope at getting real change is a grass roots movement that promotes trans-partisan policies and gets people who are interested in governing, not profiting, into office. Please give my Singular Movement post a read and let me know your thoughts. Thanks.
Hi Gerald - I'm hoping to hear back from you. The system I am proposing is a work in progress and I'm hoping that people like you who have issues with it can participate in making it better. Any one thing that stands out as really objectionable?
Many elements have gone into why we don't have a national, single-payer health care system. I think one reason is the huge waves of mass immigration that entered the US after the Civil War until WWI when the country was becoming an industrial powerhouse.
In Europe (which did not have this infusion of cheap, exploitable immigrant labor, in fact, they were losing workers) workingmen's organization gained power and the union movement worked not only for better things for workers, but the whole of society. Germany, run by Bismarck, hardly a liberal, had a kind of national health care in 1894!
In the US at this same time, unions did not take hold because the plentiful and easily replaceable immigrant workers did not have the power they needed to gain workers' rights.
Immigration is not totally win-win as the Chamber of Commerce and others like to suggest. It took an end to mass immigration in the 1920s and a Depression, starting in 1929, to give US workers the power they needed to establish strong, effective unions
No, the simple fact is that the health care industry runs our government, and Barack Obama let them write The "Affordable" Care Act, blaming Joe Lieberman (a la Joe Manchin for Biden) for blocking a public option. Your observation of the racism inherent in the system is accurate, as is the racism inherent in the Demcoratic Party (https://newrepublic.com/article/176307/islamophobia-return-hamas-war-biden), but the simple answer is that if Democrats were not such spineless political expedients we could indeed have a national health care system. Your hero Nancy Pelosi was against it to the bitter end.
Hi Boris. still doing Putin's work? Always sowing division within the Democratic party, or is it the Republicans work? you have very much to say about the Democrats and Biden, and Ukraine and little to say about Republicans and Putin.
That article is not about racism, but "Islamophobia". I slamophobia is completely justified by women, atheists, polytheists and LGBT. Absolutely justified. And course a contributor for the New Republic is a selfish, narcissistic , transphobic gay man, Andrew Sullivan, so I take NR with a grain of salt, if that.
Incidentally Christophobia is completely justified by the same groups and for the same reason, Christianity, perhaps with a few exceptions,is Patriarchal, misogynistic and LGBT phobic and is the albatross around the nexk of the nation.
Meanwhile I wonder how a person named Barry Hoffman would fare, dropped into Gaza.
Except Barry is not who he says he is, and he is on a mission, like other Putin trolls, to divide Democrats, and suck them into the Putin camp.
It is troll season, campaign season is Russian, Chinese troll season. Bear that in mind.
Yes Boris says some things that strike a cord with progressives, but Putin Trolls are smart that way,. He dwells on the Democrats, because that is his target and he is apparently on a mission to wean them away from supporting President Biden and Ukraine.
Also, not just Putin, but a clever pysops (psychological operation), on the part of Republicans.
I criticize Democrats, to prod them into acting as they hold themselves out to be, progressive,, not just provide lip service..
Boris is not doing that, his devotion, based on his comments, is to sow dissension and division among Democrats and cuo bono (who benefits), Putin, XI, and the fascists.
And sadly, it seems, based on your comment, he is succeeding. So sad, so sad.
Thank you for the warning, but I already felt that way about insurance running the country and Obama selling out. I have to be firmly behind Biden because the Republicans are so much worse and downright inhumane. We must support Ukraine because Putin invaded a sovereign nation. Don't worry about my vote.
In national politics he was a novice, even though he was a community organizer, he had no political chops, no network, no mentor when he was elected to Senator and as a Jr Senator with 2 years of experience, his last year as senator was campaigning.
When he found himself in the White House he was inexperienced and naive as regards national politics. He had no Beltway Connections, and became easy prey for vultures like Larry Summers and Rahm Emanuel., Rahm became his chief of staff, and he and Larry chose the Secretary of Treasury and other important cabinet positions.
Unlike Trump he had an open mind, and took advice from his advisors, he was like many a Roman Emperor, who knew jack squat about governing and building an empire and relied on advisors and professionals.
There is a problem in the DNC and it is the old guard, the heirs of the Dixiecrats, however the problem of money in politics predates Citizens United, as Thom has well documented.
It takes money to win elections (it is a deplorable fact that can be laid squarely in the lap of the voters, lazy, easily gulled, short term memory, no sense of history, unable to retain facts, they are easily swayed by the bullshit they see on TV, and ads work, that's why PhRMA and AHIP flood the airways with their bullshit (propaganda). Americans are attuned to believe lies.
I think it was Samuel Clements that said, A lie goes twice around the world, before the truth gets is shoes on, an example is the hospital in Gaza, a failed Islamic Jihad missile intended for Israel that went off in the parking lot of the hospital. I don't think it was a short fire by a missile, I think it was Islamic Jihad, using a hospital as a human shield, If you check the video's and photo's of the damage there is no crater, where there would be if it as an Israel bomb or rocket, the wounded and dead were all young males, gathered in the parking lot. Pictures of wounded civilians, can be made from anywhere, and HAMAS, if nothing, is the areas MAGAts..
I've seen photo's of the hospital parking lot, and there is a group of cars near the blast, that were destroyed, yet the group of cars next it were undamaged. That is not the result of an Israeli attack by an F-16, that is a failure of an Islamic Jihad Rocket.
Expect much more of these incidents. HAMAS is using it's citizens as human shields and cannon fodder, and it knows that it has the blind stupidity of gullible leftists, world wide, as well as Muslims worldwide. I'm listing to Masrwan Muasher, Jordan's foreign minister on Amanpour and Co, he refuses to acknowledge that it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that caused the destruction in Israel, despite the evidence of US Intelligence that it was.
He is afraid of reaction through out the Jew hating Islamic world, especially in Jordan.
I knew that about Obama. That is why I voted for Hillary in the primary. As for Israel and Hamas, it's going to be next to impossible to get the facts. I heard on Thom's show today that the US voted against a cease fire because it didn't include that Israel has the right to defend itself. That is a stupid excuse to vote against a cease fire. It goes without saying that every country has a right to defend itself. How do we support a government like the one we have? The US is bought and paid for.
I can surely understand where your coming from, but if you ever have time, check out what Obama had to drop or concede on in the ACA bill in order to finally get some kind of health insurance going for those who economically could not possibly afford it or they were turned down by insurers, due to any health concerns. Obama had a steep uphill battle all the way and R's only let it pass after they could turn it into a cash cow for the insurers. Thus. the bill was edited and amended greatly. I don't believe placing all blame on Obama is right.
I share your opinion about insurance and the fact that both parties are bought out by AHIP (Association of Health Insurance Providers. And that is why we don't have Single Payer.
The real enemy is from within. I blame Rahm Emanuel, who is a neo liberal asshole.
He privatized Chicago Schools, with Charter Schools.. He is a captive and client of Wall Street and financial institutions.
When the Obama administration talked about health insurance. It was Rahm Emanuel or Larry Summers (I am sure) that stepped in on the side of AHIP. Rahm as Chief of Staff, gave carte blanche to representatives of the insurance lobby, to the White House (the guest register shows this) Meanwhile advocates for single payor, including Bernie, were not invited or allowed into these meetings.
Over in the house, Nancy was running the ball for AHIP, and AHIP reps actually wrote the Affordable Care act.
When all that was required was for the house to amend the Medicare Enabling Legislation
to lower the qualification date from 65 to "at birth", a few word change in the sentence and SCOTUS would have nothing to say. Instead AHIP wrote a 600 page monstrosity, that enabled red states to opt out of Medicaid, and provide an expanded customer base for that rip off of Medicare disAdvantage.
It is open enrollment season, and I see the lying commercials for AHIP, they flood the TV.
Lying because they mislead, and suckers who enroll soon find procedures being denied, and their costs accelerating, meanwhile AHIP has ripped off the Government to the tune of Billions , if not trillions of dollars.
Mr. Farrar, on more than one occasion I have agreed with Dr.Kaufman. For instance: it is true that the Dems held both houses of Congress and the White House during Obama's first two years in office. But they never gave us universal health care, the "public option" which feckless Obama promised while on the campaign trail. I have no doubt Pelosi and Lieberman helped to kill it.
You have repeatedly called Dr. Kaufman a troll using biting sarcasm and ironic metaphors. I was inclined to chalk your words up to over-heated patriotism for "our side." But I recall you once said you were a gung ho marine in your younger years who subsequently turned around 180 degrees and embraced left causes. Anyone who can make such an impressive turnabout and openly express it deserves my admiration, and a second consideration. You are not blinded by patriotism.
I am beginning to think you are not speaking metaphorically about a troll in our midst. But are speaking literally and honestly from the heart. If this is so, please give me and all of us some evidence even if only circumstantial. (I assume you are not a personal acquaintance of Dr. Kaufman.) After all; cuo bono goes all the way back to the ancient Roman Senate and I do not turn my back on it. No sir, it is the first place all political inquiries, over the last two thousand years should begin.
Sorry Mr Dobbertin. While Kaufman hits on some valid points, and I have agreed with him on some. His specific line of attack is on Democrats, and apparently he is succeeding in driving a wedge between, say you and me.
The problem with the Democratic Party is the DNC, and must I repeat my criticisms again,. Without money, they have no political chance, and where are they addicted to obtaining money, the 10%, the billionaires, financial institutions corporations like the oil cabal, PhRMA, AHIP, the same that advertise on so called "liberal" media.
The demand for evidence is a distractive tactic. I fell for it before and it makes no difference, just wastes my time in compliling it.
I have the ability to make up my own mind, and I do it on the basis of evidence that I see, and what I see is a troll sowing division with the ranks of "liberals" and Thom's readers.
If you can't see it, then there is a problem. Almost every post of Boris' is a repudiation, chastisement and accusation of Thom. Every one.
So what is his purpose, and why are you so defensive of Boris, just because he echo's your complaints.
As I said I have often found agreement with him in some instances, but I have been around long enough to recognize that as a tactic. Feed them some tasty morsels, then they will swallow the whole poison pills.
I read with discernment, and critique and I might eat a slice of the pie, or a nibble, but I don't eat the whole thing.
I consider myself a progressive, but also an anti Marxist. I critique the DNC, legitimately, and our Democratic party leadership, but only because I seek to build a fire under them, and act like the progressives they hold themselves out out to be, but I stop short at joining hands with fascists like Putin and his internet and media acolytes, and yes. Unless one is a self blinded fool, they have expended a lot of money and effort to sow division among progressives and the left, as it is the best way to stop support for Ukraine, and they are succeeding on the right and left.
I don't fall for that, I might nibble on the pie, but I don't eat eat the toxic whole pie.
Mr. Farrar, thank you for your quick reply. I must say I am inclined to agree with you. Perhaps I am too inclined to accept what I see on the surface. I don't see the forest for the trees. I shall read him with a different set of eyes from now on.
Autocracy versus democracy. At this point we just have to hope that Biden is on our side because if we vote for anyone else the gop's will be elected and we know what side they are on. If Barry is an autocracy troll, he could be going by information accumulated over the years by the autocrats who run both parties in America to use against the marginalized left. In other words, rubbing our noses in the feces the fascist lite did while pushing for the fascist Stout. For example, ACA, the Iraq war, union busting immigrant labor, overpopulation, faith-based initiative money, corporate welfare, trickle down theory, bank bailouts, supporting free trade...
Biden will likely not be able to engage in a presidential debate when the time comes so I don't think that will be an issue. But if it matters (and I don't think micromanaging the votes of others has merit on any level) I would no more vote for Biden than Trump.
Ok, I've got to make a comment here. I agree, the insurance industry has toooo much power over our government. But, as to your comment about Obama... years ago, reading about, ACA, I read that Obama wanted price caps on the health insurers who would offer ACA medical plans. The R's absolutely would not pass the plan with ANY price caps on the insurers. Consequently, as I see it, the insurers immediately started ripping the government off on the cost of health insurance coverage. The only thing that nipped them back, even a small amout, was Obama's requirement that the health insurers were required to prove that they spent, at least, a certain percentage of the premium dollars on actual health care for their insureds, otherwise, they had to return those premium overcharges to their insureds. I welcome anyone else's comments or knowledge here?
Whenever universal health care was proposed in Congress over the past 100 years, it has been vehemently opposed by the American Medical Association as it threatened the profits of the industry. In a capitalist society the privatization of the commons, or public resources, is the process used to maximize profits for the few at the top.
Where race comes into play is in subverting the working class white workers into believing that helping people of color was going to be at their own expense. Lyndon Johnson made the observation “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better off than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Thom. This is great history and explains the decades old bias against national health care. Please take every opportunity with regards to accepting all invites from radio or Tv hosts!
Given the history you've outlined here, can you fast forward to comment/educate us on todays Medicare Advantage being sold to retirees? I'm dubious about this because it adds private, for profit, corporate business to our government guaranteed, "old age" health insurance.
If you have already written about this, please post a link?
Jeese. we all need to do a sweat lodge or crawl on hands and knees to some lofty shrine to shirk off this grossness. What do you do, Thom, to rid yourself of the pollution of this knowledge? I had to quit at "incapables." Only about half way! The African-descended descended on San Francisco Bay as part of the "War Effort," WWII. My Mom (perhaps infamous, here in Hartmannland) thought she was so above that racist stuff, while making speeches about how Africans were lazy because where they came from, bananas would just fall into their mouths. Seriously. I have to get up my nerve to read the rest of your retrospective....
Jonathan Metzl discussed the modern implications of this issue in his book “Dying of Whiteness.” Some people are willing to die themselves if it means it will also deprive someone else the first person deems undeserving or unworthy of aid.
I submit that the connecting zeitgeist is "laziness." It's all very weird, but "lazy negroes" sort of blends in with the "pull self up by bootstraps" idea I think Thom did a piece on a while back: "God helps those who help themselves...." Weird, because the negroes who were so necessary to the economy of the South that the lordships went to war, were stereotyped as "lazy." Weird.
According to Bernie Sanders, Medicare for all could save $450 billion dollars a year by an analysis done by Yale and the University of Florida and Maryland. Right wingers strike again.
Flying in the face of facts, prejudice and propaganda win every time.
Small wonder that Hitler turned to Henry Ford, Jim Crow, Indigenous Land Theft / Genocide, and American Eugenics as his Nazi template for how "it" should be done.
Smaller wonder that every race-hostile crackpot in American history has Germanic DNA, including the former President of these United States and his papa Fred.
This has nothing to do with DNA, Germanic or otherwise. It is the result of hatred.
Darlin' I vote for the DNA. The Northern Europeans who self-selected to invade America I will stand by (half of my family!) were stone authoritarian stock.
And you're proud of this?
Hell no! I've used my experience of being appalled and perplexed at the fixed mental pattern of my mother in many postings in this forum. I have described her as "Born a Bircher and died a Birther." (plenty educated,BTW: you can't generalize the "stupid.") I am sure she would have dyed her whole body MAGA red if she'd lived long enough. AND, yes, I think she was DNA hard-wired like that and it is traceable back through generations to: you guessed it: religious colony with roots in Bavaria. Thanks for asking!
Sounds about white to me.
A certain selection of white: the followers of preachers that, as Garrison Keillor once said: "were tossed out of every decent country in Europe." Now known as "authoritarian followers."
Every race hostile has Germanic DNA? Which means that all Germans are racists. How about the racists Latino's, like Fuentes and Tarrio. The south is populated by racists, that have not a drop of German in their DNA, while there are millions of Germans who are not racists.
Racism is not in the DNA, it is a result of one's environment, bigotry is learned, not embedded in DNA.
I have great great grandparents one was a German Catholic, the other a German Jew. My mother, after her divorce dated a black man, my sister his nephew Paul. I grew up acceptive of all, including gays, Jews, every one except "commies". Then again I grew up in a project.
AHA! We are down to the "nature vs nurture" eternal quandary. My claim to some credibility, on the "nature" side, is generations of experience with "temperament" of mainly horses, at birth, and long-suffering contemplation of one side of my birth family.
It has never occurred to me that "all Germans are racists," however. I apparently escaped, anyway, even though I am so white I have rosacea and need GLA supplementation (borage oil, friends) But I am prejudiced that the particular selection of Northern European refugees to America may have concentrated AUTHORITARIAN genetics.
I will acknowledge that some people are born that way, not racists, but violent and murders.
Take Ted Bundy, he was adopted by a very nice and loving couple, but when he was about 8 years old, he snuck out of the bedroom window, and was seen burying something with his feet in a ditch, being dug for sewage or water on the grounds of the University of Puget Sound, and it later turned out that there was a young girl that had gone missing, and never found, in tje same area, and he is not the only one. There is the sociopathic Ayn Rand, and you can say the same for just about every serial killer, or just plain killers.
But not a whole group of peoples, it is akin to saying that all blacks, Jews, gays, Hindus, Muslims are born sociopaths and psychopaths. I refuse to believe that.
You escaped what? What is your story?
Horses aren't people, in case you didn't know. You can't apply what you observe in the equine species to the human species, except the universal sex drive, and need of the male animal to dominate, that he may then procreate.
As regards the desire to be subject to an all powerful leader, that is what religion is all about, submission to an all powerful father figure (such as Our father which are in the sky, ..)
To into any culture, any country on earth and you find people submissive and worshipful of authoritarian tyrants, be it Niger, Malaysia, China, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Hungary and Poland, or as in America the MAGGOTS.
I don't know what your personal experience is, sounds horrible, but you can't apply it with broad strokes to all of humanity, or even a section of humanity.
Mr. Farrar, I could not help but read your exchange with Mmerose about the "nature-nurture" debate. This is stuff I taught for 4 decades in my Criminology course and Social Theory course. With regard to Ted Bundy and the topic of serial killers you mentioned. I have read a small library of stuff on this topic. Most of it entertaining, much of it bullshit as well. The best I have fallen upon is HUNTING HUMANS by a Cultural Anthropologist in Canada named Elliott Leyton. Without intending to do so; he created a new school of Criminological thought. As yet, without a name, and of course stirring up many objectors from the fraternity of Recognized Criminologists. This is true, at first, of all radically new ideas.
Just thought you might be interested. It is a great read. I put it on my student's reading list. The bookstore at my University refused to order the book. So I went to a friend in town who owned a bookstore off campus and had her order it. Unbelievable!??! Leyton also wrote a book about Children who kill their parents. I did not find this book useful.
Why did the bookstore in your university refuse to order the book?
I acknowledge that a lot of human behavior is genetic. I have a friend he was a Captain at the time, his wife was unable to have a child, so he adopted a baby, born to a waitress that was raped.
They loved the child, gave him the best that they could, and he turned out to be like his biological father. Ted Bundy was probably of the same ilk.
As a genetic genealogist I know all about epigenetics, in fact 23andme, has partners (shareholders) in PhRMA and AHIP and after you submit a DNA sample, they start pestering you with "Health Questionaires" Scare quotes because they have nothing to do with your health, they want information on your parents, where they were born and raised, and all kind of stuff that is irrelevant. They are gathering macro data, to give to their partners (they say that they don't sell your info, but they do share it with "partners".
Epigenetics can explain a lot things, maybe, but not attributing characteristics to a whole class of people.
Mankind, emphasis on man, is a violent species. Violent to other species, violent to their own, just give them an excuse to be violent, and in some deviants no excuse required.
I feel it instructive to rewind on Ayn Rand, and her role model for a superman, William Edward Hickman, a psychotic serial killer, without a conscience, she used him for the archetype of her protagonist in all of her novels.
She was, herself, a psychopath. I suspect a combination of nature and nurture, and there are a lot of them walking around. Like Donald's sons Jr and Eric, they spend a fortune to go to Africa where they can shoot lions in a cage, and feel like big men. All of that money, and still they have a huge inferiority complex.
"But not a whole group of peoples, it is akin to saying that all blacks, Jews, gays, Hindus, Muslims are born sociopaths and psychopaths. I refuse to believe that." Me too.
Can't imagine how you thought I said that.
Surely you have heard of "selective breeding" across many species. Yes, authoritarians exist across a spectrum of cultures and racial identities.
The authoritarians who worship Donald Trump happen to have a hereditary affinity to a splinter of Europeans who fled or were driven out of Europe precisely because they were fanatics. I'm not saying it's determinative or exclusive for any individual. But the inherent inclinations, across statistical numbers, I can't get away from thinking it could be a factor in the phenomenon of this Trump mania.
I can't believe that you condoned selective breeding. That was the whole agenda of Hitlers Lebensborn program. Taking "Aryan Youth" out of their environment and putting them together to breed the Aryan Youth of the future. You can breed cattle,horses, dogs for their desireable qualities, and I recognize the nurture nature argument, but people are a different thing, and you don't breed a whole nation to hate Jews or Blacks or Anything else, that is all "nurture". I refuse to believe that hatred is genetic. It is taught.
That's an extraordinary claim that the authoritarians who worship Trump happen to have a hereditary affinity to a splinter of Europeans who fled or were driven out of Europe, precisely because they were fanatics.
Who were these fanatics? Irish, Jews, Norse, even Germans. They weren't driven out of Europe because they were fanatics. They left their homes and came here, because, they were either oppressed and/or starving and unable to support themselves in Europe. One of my 2nd great grandfathers was attracted to America by recruiting agents during the Civil War. In fact lots of Germans were, and Germany was undergoing it's own internal conflicts, in fact a Catholic vs Protestant religious war
You brought in statistics, please show those statistics. While at it, how about all of those black and Hispanic Republicans and Tump Humpers, what aboutAli Alexander (born Ali Abdul-Razaq Akbar[, now there is a real Quisling, Alexander was born in 1984 or 1985, one of two children born to a Christian African-American mother, Lydia Dews,[14] and a Muslim father
Most of the Trump Humpers are from the south, and are of English and Irish ancestry, with only a few of German ancestry.
Don't tell me that the Irish were kicked out of Ireland because they were authoritarian, or the early English settlers the same.
Ireland was oppressed by the English, and dispossessed and turned into serfs to their English lord and Masters. Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army, killed 640,000 Irish and shipped 50,000 of them to the colonies as indentured servants, virtual slaves.
Germany was not a very nice place to live. It was ruled by Dukes, Barons, Princes who had life and death powers over it's subjects. The Hessians of the revolution, were peasants, sons of farmers who Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt (German: Ludwig) (15 December 1719 – 6 April 1790) was the reigning Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1768 to 1790, deep in debt conscripted his peasants and sold them to Britain for money to pay off his debts.
A second cousin four times removed, named Richard Farrar, had in his estate (died in 1860)
a tax document, and below a clock, was a white male age 21 to 50, listed as personal property, along with the clock. I presume he was Irish, and an indentured servant.
I realize that you need an explanation to account for the hateful Trumpers and neo NAZI'a, but it is not genetic, is all nurture.
The anger, angst, hostility of the right is vented towards Americans of African Descent, and the vast majority of them are Christian nationalists.
There is also a healthy contingent of Indians and Indian Americans, as well as Cubanos that are Republican Trump Humpers, the Cubanos, are children and grandchildren of the affluent upper class of Cubans, who fled Cuba, because after the revolution, they were no longer able to exploit the peasants, just like the Venezuelans who America is welcoming and will regret doing so tomorrow, as these people are very conservative Catholics and natural allies of the patriarchal, misogynistic, homophobic Trump humpers
What I think you haven't yet wrapped your head around, is the all too real culture war, the war against women, minorities, LGBT, and Jews, and yes each of their groups have Quislings, motivated by personal goals, of self enrichment, power even , like Clarence Thomas, self hatred, or like those five black cops in Baton Rouge, who killed a black motorists, anger at other blacks for making them look bad.
What went off the rails was interpretation I was talking about eugenics. I know about everything you bring up, but it's all non-responsive to my narrow historical theory about SELF-SELECTED immigrant communities.
Hey, Keith, William: Ever heard of exaggeration for "EFFECT !?!"
Oh, dear. Was just a little colorful, for effect, but totally sincere!
One thing that this essay overlooks is how modern socialized medicine has been defeated without reference racism. It is worth keeping in mind that private healthcare is the only form of extortion legally allowed in the United States. Pay me or die.
It is worth keeping in mind that the earliest form of health insurance - Blue Cross/Shield - was founded by physicians themselves. That ensured their income streams would not be impacted by rising prices. Eventually the life insurance industry outcompeted the physicians programs by encouraging private sector businesses to make health insurance a worker benefit. Of course, premiums were/are kept lower through deductibles, co-pays, and benefit caps which still can bankrupt patients.
Health insurance profits encouraged the American Medical Association (AMA) of the 50s and 60s to assert that the quality of healthcare in America would crumble if universal healthcare was ever adopted. Doctor offices and hospitals would be overwhelmed by freeloaders. Waiting lines for treatment would be endless. Surgeries would be delayed, and patients would die. Some universal healthcare opponents conflated socialism with communism. Just look at the poverty and low life expectancy in the Soviet Union!
Delayed service and reduced quality of care were likely the most potent arguments to gain voter opposition to universal healthcare. Of course, this was pure gaslight - i.e., lies. I know this because I have been a member of the only universal healthcare program in America – the military. My waits in doctors’ offices are the same as the private sector – no better or worse. Access to surgery is the same – private sector specialist referrals are free too. Even as a military retiree, my out-of-pocket expenses for certain services rarely exceeds $200/year and I am 76. A few years back I was on a regimen of monthly shots for 14 months that cost $8,300 each. Can you imagine Congress agreeing to pay that much for a single injection under universal healthcare? I had surgery at Mayo Clinic this year. The cost to me was a staggering $50 for a lab test that DOD had capped the cost of, so I had to make up the difference or skip it.
Fast forward, and support for universal healthcare among physicians is now dominant within the profession. AMA no longer objects – in part because doctors and nurses are exhausted. Our rigged capitalist system is actually undermining healthcare providers’ quality of life and ability to offer top-flite healthcare. This is validated by the fact that the life expectancy in the US is lower than countries with national healthcare systems like the UK, Germany, and most other EU countries. Private insurance premiums in America are now obscenely high even with employer insurance programs. Thus, race as a justification for opposition to universal coverage has pretty much faded away as economic factors and quality of care now dominate arguments against the status quo.
Well said Mr. Tomonthebeach. Legalized extortion: "pay me or die."
I live in Wilmington, NC, the largest city on the NC coast. By any characterization, we are a small market. I needed a dermatologist, and I had to wait 4 months for an appointment. A friend had to wait 6 months for surgery for a knee replacement. Would universal healthcare increase such wait times as we have now?
Based upon other countries experience, research has shown that your access to care would likely improve. However, given the size of the US, there will always be gaps in rural areas. Nevertheless, states would be able to spread the wealth so-to-speak through pressure on Congress - if we had a national health service. State could also subsidize the federal program - if there was one.
Something to keep in mind. A major reason for there being fewer doctors in rural areas is income. With a federal programs, everybody would be paid about the same, thus, providers would not have to take a big pay cut to practice in your area as they likely do now.
Love what you have shared here! Would appreciate any insights you might have with regards to the craze of Medicare Advantage plans for retirees? There is some trickery here and,once again, Corporate America is lining their pockets with huge sums of $$$.
Medicare advantage programs usually require their permission to seek specialist services and tests like MRIs which can delay treatment - the same problem applies to prescriptions. They can deny coverage for some procedures and can turn billing for emergency services into post-treatment nightmare. So caveat emptor. You might start by Googling "how medicare advantage scams seniors." Alternatively, many employers offer their retirees the option to carry supplementary insurance programs to medicare - basically your old insurance plan coverage adjusted for Medicare coverage. One thing I would advise is talking with your primary care physician's office manager - whomever bills Advantage programs. They will know from experience the problems your doctor has had with a plan. Sadly homework is probably the best option before committing to an Advantage program because some are just outright scams.
Yes and thanks Thom! There is a great 5-minute video on this from HealthCare-Now https://youtu.be/_eN0KhJ3BoI?si=i0v5IlBxXiEHQ1QX More on single payer including racist disparities here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyQ8t1Go9IQQwxkW906qka8NBGQMhpijv&si=eTyAJoQWQ_M3zHgO
Great Article Thom, I am aghast. I had no idea that the problem had such deep pseudo scientific roots. Forever in your debt for this excellent history. I am more disgusted than ever.
I totally envy your knowledge of history and your research. have learned so much.
I toyed with the idea of joining the Libertarian Party in 1980, even attended a recruiting meeting, but backed out because of their proposal for a Soviet Style gold standard. I didn't realize that it was a sociopathic organization and ideology.
Alexandra Pelosi , the daughter of Nancy,, is a documentarian. She has made 16 Documentaries. In one of them, I c an’t remember which it is either Right America Feeling Wronged 2009) or Outside the Bubble (2018). She toured the south. In one scene she interviewed a stereotypical toothless red neck in bib overalls living in a single wide, with trash strewn around.
She asked him about food stamps and welfare, he said he was “again it” because them lazy “nehgras” got it.
She said, but your own food stamps also, he replied, “that’s different I earned them”
Hoffman was engaged in junk science regarding "scientific" racism. He was also engaged in one of the oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is, the search for a moral superior justification for selfishness-John Kenneth Galbraith. He was ahead of the curve regarding things like tobacco and asbestos causing cancer. But he let prejudice take over with regard to skin color. Prejudice is emotional, not scientific.
Bingo! We have a winnah!
Again an excellent piece Mr. Hartman. I ran into Hoffman's name when I wrote my dissertation 40+ years ago. However, I did not go into his biography deeply enough, as you did. Thank you for uncovering all this history and laying it before us. I learned a great deal from your article.
I did uncover a wish by Franklin Roosevelt to include single-payer universal healthcare, along with his introduction of single-payer Social Security Insurance for the elderly. He was nudged in the direction
of universal health care by Frances Perkins ( FDR's Secretary of Labor, who was, I believe, the first female cabinet secretary and longest serving Sec. of Labor). She also came up with the idea of Social Security and pushed him to fight for it against formidable resistance.
The reason FDR gave up on universal health care was: racism among White Americans. He knew that White Americans, especially in the South, would refuse to accept sharing health care facilities with Black Americans. So, rather than let White, racist-rejection of universal health care torpedo his entire Social Security package; he put the plan forward with no health care provision. It was a compromise; which is inherent in the nature of democratic institutions. We could have been enjoying universal health care since the 1930s; if not for White racism. White Americans deprived and harmed themselves because of their bias against their dark-skinned fellow citizens.
The gradual, all-too-slow process of allowing Black citizens increasingly into legitimate American institutional life since the 1930s, is currently fueling the frightening mostly White trend toward Fascism in the U.S. Black citizens have much clearer understanding of political power in the U.S. than Whites. Is it any wonder why Black voters mostly support the Democratic Party; even with all its ugly blemishes?
I remember President Lyndon Johnson saying when he signed the medicare bill for the elderly into law, "the Democratic Party was losing the White Southern vote for a generation." How perceptive LBJ was!
Perhaps now is the time when White Americans will get back onto the bus with their Black fellow citizens as Rosa Parks, MLK and Malcom X rise higher in the American Pantheon.
I must correct my error here. LBJ made his comment about losing the south when he signed the civil rights bill into law. Not the Medicare bill.
Except the white Southern vote has been has been lost for almost 60 years.
Interesting read. I’d like to suggest we turn from analyzing the past to focusing on the future. Here is an alternative to the Single Payment System that I’d like to present for consideration:
The Singular Health Care Payment System - The Singular Health Care Payment System is a simpler, fairer and more affordable alternative to America’s existing payment systems. Its goals are: (i) to simplify how Americans pay for their healthcare, (ii) make quality healthcare equally affordable to all Americans and, (iii) in the long run, reduce healthcare costs.
Here is how the Singular Health Care Payment System works. Under the Singular System, the federal government establishes healthcare accounts for every U.S. citizen. When healthcare is needed, a person pays a co-payment towards their treatment and the balance of the bill is sent to the federal agency responsible for the healthcare accounts. It pays the balance and records a debit in the amount of the shortfall in the person's healthcare account. At tax time each year, the individual is responsible for making a tax payment of up to 10% of their income towards the deficit in the account until the deficit has been eliminated. If the individual dies with a deficit in the account, then their estate is taxed up to 30% until the deficit is satisfied. If there is still a deficit remaining after the payment from the estate, then the deficit is expunged.
This system replaces Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. It is important to note that this system is not health insurance and therefore there are no premiums to pay. If a person never needs healthcare, they never pay any costs associated with healthcare. If they do need healthcare, the payment system will limit the cost to 10% of their annual income and 30% of their estate at death. Also, participation in this payment system is voluntary. Americans may choose not to participate and instead make payments for their healthcare independently or continue to use health insurance to manage their healthcare expenses.
Why 10% of your income and 30% of your estate? The goal of the Singular Movement is to make health care affordable to all Americans. To subsidize an American’s health care needs only as much as is needed and no more. The payment of 10% of an individual’s income for health care services is affordable. Keep in mind that individuals are only paying for health care services that they receive directly and when those services have been paid in full no more tax payments are made. For most Americans, this amount will be less than the lifetime premiums they or their employers pay for health insurance.
The reason for the 30% estate tax on unpaid bills, is simply that most healthcare services are incurred at the end of an individual’s life and the federal government would be unable to recoup its payments from a 10% tax on income, so a 30% estate tax would provide capacity to recoup a fair amount without over taxing an estate.
The Singular Healthcare Payment System is simple - For Americans who chose to participate in it, there is one payor, one payment plan, one co-payment regimen, and no premiums. A person can select any healthcare provider in any location so long as the healthcare provider is enrolled in the federal payment program.
The Singular Health Care Payment System is fair. Everyone pays the same percent of their income and estate towards satisfying their healthcare expenses. Although individuals with lower income may find a 10% tax more onerous than more affluent individuals, they will be able to utilize their Singular Tax Credit to satisfy their health care expenses.
The Singular Health Care Payment System is affordable. Over the span of an average American’s life, it is highly likely that the 10% tax on their income and 30% tax on their estate will satisfy most of the bills they incur during their lifetime and the amount subsidized by the federal government will be near to what it currently subsidizes through existing programs. A full assessment of the cost of this program to the government will be presented with the Singular Tax post. For the time being, trust that there is a way to responsibly implement the entire Singular System over time in a way that is sustainable and non-disruptive to our economy.
Benefits
* The Singular System will make payment for healthcare simple and affordable.
* It will give Americans health care security, knowing that they will always be able to reasonably pay for needed health care.
* It will allow all Americans to seek quality healthcare without regards to cost or insurance plan restrictions.
* It will reduce employer expenses, helping to make American companies more competitive abroad, smaller companies more competitive with larger ones, and entrepreneurship more viable for people with limited capital.
* It rewards healthful living by eliminating healthcare insurance premiums and provides an economic incentive to be healthy to avoid income and estate taxation.
* It reduces healthcare costs for most Americans as they will pay less in healthcare expenses than they do currently in healthcare insurance during their lifetime.
* It will reduce national healthcare costs over time, as Americans exercise more discretion in the health care they seek knowing that they will directly pay the bill over time. This will reduce unnecessary testing and procedures and exorbitant end of life care.
* It will reduce the amount of money the government pays towards Americans’ healthcare over time as healthcare costs will decline and Americans will pay for a larger share of their healthcare costs.
You've put a lot of thought and effort into this so you have my respect. The caveat that jumps out at me is the 30% estate tax up to the amount of the charges for end of life care.
Personally, I would shudder at the thought of needing serious medical care and being at the mercy of possibly evil, spoiled, greedy children or some other beneficiary to my estate that might be motivated to deny me that care, or even hasten the end of my life to ensure that their inheritance stays intact. Medical expenses can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars in a very short amount of time. Also, medical providers always advise people to get medical "power of attorney" drawn up as they advance in age. Children are most always the designee's.
Talk about "death panels"........could be scary! Do you have a plan for that?
This is a worthy concern and is one of the reasons I limited the tax to 30%. Nevertheless, I am sure there are unscrupulous children who would rather see their parents suffer and die than give up 30% of their inheritance. But how many? And do we fail to implement a system that betters the lives of the balance of the American population because of these miscreants? The remedy for this issue would otherwise lie with the individuals who are concerned with it, in making sure they choose someone they trust in charge of their medical directive or power of attorney. I would also expect that the insurance industry responds with insurance to cover this situation. It would be expensive, but people with estates they want to preserve for their children would have the motivation to pay for it.
Please know that the alternative healthcare payment system I'm proposing is a work in progress and I am hoping people share their concerns and ideas so that it can be modified into something that folks from across the political spectrum can support. So I thank you for letting me know your concern but also please let me know if you have any ideas to address it or of other things you'd do to improve the system.
Well, thank you Mark for the reply! Yes, your suggestion as to insurance to limit losses is plausible one. It would be gap insurance. That type is sold now on a few different levels.
For instance, I have medigap insurance to supplement my goverment Medicare parts A, B. Works great, as long as I can afford it, I will keep it.
We need people like you trying to solve our national problems. Now, if you could just get an audience in DC. I know your striving for a bipartisan solution but I think I would start looking for an ear on the D side. Wink, Wink.......
By the time a politician gets to DC, they've already been corrupted by their political party's establishment and moneyed and special interests. This was sadly apparent when the Democrats were in power and could only get the Affordable Care Act passed with significant concessions to the health insurance industry, including and most notably the elimination of the public option. Our best hope at getting real change is a grass roots movement that promotes trans-partisan policies and gets people who are interested in governing, not profiting, into office. Please give my Singular Movement post a read and let me know your thoughts. Thanks.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thesingularmovement/p/the-singular-movement?r=17m4ku&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Mr. De Lotto, this is a terrible plan for so any reasons that an entire dissertation could be written in response.
Thanks for taking the time to consider it. Just give me a few objections to start.
Mr. De Lotto, I apologize for the word "terrible," an over statement. I am currently occupied. But shall respond later.
Hi Gerald - I'm hoping to hear back from you. The system I am proposing is a work in progress and I'm hoping that people like you who have issues with it can participate in making it better. Any one thing that stands out as really objectionable?
Many elements have gone into why we don't have a national, single-payer health care system. I think one reason is the huge waves of mass immigration that entered the US after the Civil War until WWI when the country was becoming an industrial powerhouse.
In Europe (which did not have this infusion of cheap, exploitable immigrant labor, in fact, they were losing workers) workingmen's organization gained power and the union movement worked not only for better things for workers, but the whole of society. Germany, run by Bismarck, hardly a liberal, had a kind of national health care in 1894!
In the US at this same time, unions did not take hold because the plentiful and easily replaceable immigrant workers did not have the power they needed to gain workers' rights.
Immigration is not totally win-win as the Chamber of Commerce and others like to suggest. It took an end to mass immigration in the 1920s and a Depression, starting in 1929, to give US workers the power they needed to establish strong, effective unions
No, the simple fact is that the health care industry runs our government, and Barack Obama let them write The "Affordable" Care Act, blaming Joe Lieberman (a la Joe Manchin for Biden) for blocking a public option. Your observation of the racism inherent in the system is accurate, as is the racism inherent in the Demcoratic Party (https://newrepublic.com/article/176307/islamophobia-return-hamas-war-biden), but the simple answer is that if Democrats were not such spineless political expedients we could indeed have a national health care system. Your hero Nancy Pelosi was against it to the bitter end.
Hi Boris. still doing Putin's work? Always sowing division within the Democratic party, or is it the Republicans work? you have very much to say about the Democrats and Biden, and Ukraine and little to say about Republicans and Putin.
That article is not about racism, but "Islamophobia". I slamophobia is completely justified by women, atheists, polytheists and LGBT. Absolutely justified. And course a contributor for the New Republic is a selfish, narcissistic , transphobic gay man, Andrew Sullivan, so I take NR with a grain of salt, if that.
Incidentally Christophobia is completely justified by the same groups and for the same reason, Christianity, perhaps with a few exceptions,is Patriarchal, misogynistic and LGBT phobic and is the albatross around the nexk of the nation.
Meanwhile I wonder how a person named Barry Hoffman would fare, dropped into Gaza.
I vote for Democrats because they are the lesser of two evils. I totally agree with Barry J. Kaufman DO.
Except Barry is not who he says he is, and he is on a mission, like other Putin trolls, to divide Democrats, and suck them into the Putin camp.
It is troll season, campaign season is Russian, Chinese troll season. Bear that in mind.
Yes Boris says some things that strike a cord with progressives, but Putin Trolls are smart that way,. He dwells on the Democrats, because that is his target and he is apparently on a mission to wean them away from supporting President Biden and Ukraine.
Also, not just Putin, but a clever pysops (psychological operation), on the part of Republicans.
I criticize Democrats, to prod them into acting as they hold themselves out to be, progressive,, not just provide lip service..
Boris is not doing that, his devotion, based on his comments, is to sow dissension and division among Democrats and cuo bono (who benefits), Putin, XI, and the fascists.
And sadly, it seems, based on your comment, he is succeeding. So sad, so sad.
Thank you for the warning, but I already felt that way about insurance running the country and Obama selling out. I have to be firmly behind Biden because the Republicans are so much worse and downright inhumane. We must support Ukraine because Putin invaded a sovereign nation. Don't worry about my vote.
I have something to say about Obama.
In national politics he was a novice, even though he was a community organizer, he had no political chops, no network, no mentor when he was elected to Senator and as a Jr Senator with 2 years of experience, his last year as senator was campaigning.
When he found himself in the White House he was inexperienced and naive as regards national politics. He had no Beltway Connections, and became easy prey for vultures like Larry Summers and Rahm Emanuel., Rahm became his chief of staff, and he and Larry chose the Secretary of Treasury and other important cabinet positions.
Unlike Trump he had an open mind, and took advice from his advisors, he was like many a Roman Emperor, who knew jack squat about governing and building an empire and relied on advisors and professionals.
There is a problem in the DNC and it is the old guard, the heirs of the Dixiecrats, however the problem of money in politics predates Citizens United, as Thom has well documented.
It takes money to win elections (it is a deplorable fact that can be laid squarely in the lap of the voters, lazy, easily gulled, short term memory, no sense of history, unable to retain facts, they are easily swayed by the bullshit they see on TV, and ads work, that's why PhRMA and AHIP flood the airways with their bullshit (propaganda). Americans are attuned to believe lies.
I think it was Samuel Clements that said, A lie goes twice around the world, before the truth gets is shoes on, an example is the hospital in Gaza, a failed Islamic Jihad missile intended for Israel that went off in the parking lot of the hospital. I don't think it was a short fire by a missile, I think it was Islamic Jihad, using a hospital as a human shield, If you check the video's and photo's of the damage there is no crater, where there would be if it as an Israel bomb or rocket, the wounded and dead were all young males, gathered in the parking lot. Pictures of wounded civilians, can be made from anywhere, and HAMAS, if nothing, is the areas MAGAts..
I've seen photo's of the hospital parking lot, and there is a group of cars near the blast, that were destroyed, yet the group of cars next it were undamaged. That is not the result of an Israeli attack by an F-16, that is a failure of an Islamic Jihad Rocket.
Expect much more of these incidents. HAMAS is using it's citizens as human shields and cannon fodder, and it knows that it has the blind stupidity of gullible leftists, world wide, as well as Muslims worldwide. I'm listing to Masrwan Muasher, Jordan's foreign minister on Amanpour and Co, he refuses to acknowledge that it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that caused the destruction in Israel, despite the evidence of US Intelligence that it was.
He is afraid of reaction through out the Jew hating Islamic world, especially in Jordan.
I knew that about Obama. That is why I voted for Hillary in the primary. As for Israel and Hamas, it's going to be next to impossible to get the facts. I heard on Thom's show today that the US voted against a cease fire because it didn't include that Israel has the right to defend itself. That is a stupid excuse to vote against a cease fire. It goes without saying that every country has a right to defend itself. How do we support a government like the one we have? The US is bought and paid for.
I can surely understand where your coming from, but if you ever have time, check out what Obama had to drop or concede on in the ACA bill in order to finally get some kind of health insurance going for those who economically could not possibly afford it or they were turned down by insurers, due to any health concerns. Obama had a steep uphill battle all the way and R's only let it pass after they could turn it into a cash cow for the insurers. Thus. the bill was edited and amended greatly. I don't believe placing all blame on Obama is right.
Check, check, and check. I guess we'll never know whether Obama was a weak appeaser, or a sly triangulator, or just got all he could get.
I share your opinion about insurance and the fact that both parties are bought out by AHIP (Association of Health Insurance Providers. And that is why we don't have Single Payer.
The real enemy is from within. I blame Rahm Emanuel, who is a neo liberal asshole.
He privatized Chicago Schools, with Charter Schools.. He is a captive and client of Wall Street and financial institutions.
When the Obama administration talked about health insurance. It was Rahm Emanuel or Larry Summers (I am sure) that stepped in on the side of AHIP. Rahm as Chief of Staff, gave carte blanche to representatives of the insurance lobby, to the White House (the guest register shows this) Meanwhile advocates for single payor, including Bernie, were not invited or allowed into these meetings.
Over in the house, Nancy was running the ball for AHIP, and AHIP reps actually wrote the Affordable Care act.
When all that was required was for the house to amend the Medicare Enabling Legislation
to lower the qualification date from 65 to "at birth", a few word change in the sentence and SCOTUS would have nothing to say. Instead AHIP wrote a 600 page monstrosity, that enabled red states to opt out of Medicaid, and provide an expanded customer base for that rip off of Medicare disAdvantage.
It is open enrollment season, and I see the lying commercials for AHIP, they flood the TV.
Lying because they mislead, and suckers who enroll soon find procedures being denied, and their costs accelerating, meanwhile AHIP has ripped off the Government to the tune of Billions , if not trillions of dollars.
Mr. Farrar, on more than one occasion I have agreed with Dr.Kaufman. For instance: it is true that the Dems held both houses of Congress and the White House during Obama's first two years in office. But they never gave us universal health care, the "public option" which feckless Obama promised while on the campaign trail. I have no doubt Pelosi and Lieberman helped to kill it.
You have repeatedly called Dr. Kaufman a troll using biting sarcasm and ironic metaphors. I was inclined to chalk your words up to over-heated patriotism for "our side." But I recall you once said you were a gung ho marine in your younger years who subsequently turned around 180 degrees and embraced left causes. Anyone who can make such an impressive turnabout and openly express it deserves my admiration, and a second consideration. You are not blinded by patriotism.
I am beginning to think you are not speaking metaphorically about a troll in our midst. But are speaking literally and honestly from the heart. If this is so, please give me and all of us some evidence even if only circumstantial. (I assume you are not a personal acquaintance of Dr. Kaufman.) After all; cuo bono goes all the way back to the ancient Roman Senate and I do not turn my back on it. No sir, it is the first place all political inquiries, over the last two thousand years should begin.
Sorry Mr Dobbertin. While Kaufman hits on some valid points, and I have agreed with him on some. His specific line of attack is on Democrats, and apparently he is succeeding in driving a wedge between, say you and me.
The problem with the Democratic Party is the DNC, and must I repeat my criticisms again,. Without money, they have no political chance, and where are they addicted to obtaining money, the 10%, the billionaires, financial institutions corporations like the oil cabal, PhRMA, AHIP, the same that advertise on so called "liberal" media.
The demand for evidence is a distractive tactic. I fell for it before and it makes no difference, just wastes my time in compliling it.
I have the ability to make up my own mind, and I do it on the basis of evidence that I see, and what I see is a troll sowing division with the ranks of "liberals" and Thom's readers.
If you can't see it, then there is a problem. Almost every post of Boris' is a repudiation, chastisement and accusation of Thom. Every one.
So what is his purpose, and why are you so defensive of Boris, just because he echo's your complaints.
As I said I have often found agreement with him in some instances, but I have been around long enough to recognize that as a tactic. Feed them some tasty morsels, then they will swallow the whole poison pills.
I read with discernment, and critique and I might eat a slice of the pie, or a nibble, but I don't eat the whole thing.
I consider myself a progressive, but also an anti Marxist. I critique the DNC, legitimately, and our Democratic party leadership, but only because I seek to build a fire under them, and act like the progressives they hold themselves out out to be, but I stop short at joining hands with fascists like Putin and his internet and media acolytes, and yes. Unless one is a self blinded fool, they have expended a lot of money and effort to sow division among progressives and the left, as it is the best way to stop support for Ukraine, and they are succeeding on the right and left.
I don't fall for that, I might nibble on the pie, but I don't eat eat the toxic whole pie.
Mr. Farrar, thank you for your quick reply. I must say I am inclined to agree with you. Perhaps I am too inclined to accept what I see on the surface. I don't see the forest for the trees. I shall read him with a different set of eyes from now on.
Autocracy versus democracy. At this point we just have to hope that Biden is on our side because if we vote for anyone else the gop's will be elected and we know what side they are on. If Barry is an autocracy troll, he could be going by information accumulated over the years by the autocrats who run both parties in America to use against the marginalized left. In other words, rubbing our noses in the feces the fascist lite did while pushing for the fascist Stout. For example, ACA, the Iraq war, union busting immigrant labor, overpopulation, faith-based initiative money, corporate welfare, trickle down theory, bank bailouts, supporting free trade...
Okay, I'm totally confused now. Barry, will you vote for Biden because he is a lesser of two evils?
Biden will likely not be able to engage in a presidential debate when the time comes so I don't think that will be an issue. But if it matters (and I don't think micromanaging the votes of others has merit on any level) I would no more vote for Biden than Trump.
Bad answer Dr. Kaufman. A non-answer really.
Yeah. That was weird.
So you're not going to vote or you're going to vote for a third party candidate. Either way that is a vote for autocracy.
Ok, I've got to make a comment here. I agree, the insurance industry has toooo much power over our government. But, as to your comment about Obama... years ago, reading about, ACA, I read that Obama wanted price caps on the health insurers who would offer ACA medical plans. The R's absolutely would not pass the plan with ANY price caps on the insurers. Consequently, as I see it, the insurers immediately started ripping the government off on the cost of health insurance coverage. The only thing that nipped them back, even a small amout, was Obama's requirement that the health insurers were required to prove that they spent, at least, a certain percentage of the premium dollars on actual health care for their insureds, otherwise, they had to return those premium overcharges to their insureds. I welcome anyone else's comments or knowledge here?
Mr. Kaufman, you are unfortunately correct about Lieberman and Pelosi. But perhaps we can now look forward to a better future without those relicts.
Whenever universal health care was proposed in Congress over the past 100 years, it has been vehemently opposed by the American Medical Association as it threatened the profits of the industry. In a capitalist society the privatization of the commons, or public resources, is the process used to maximize profits for the few at the top.
Where race comes into play is in subverting the working class white workers into believing that helping people of color was going to be at their own expense. Lyndon Johnson made the observation “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better off than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Thom. This is great history and explains the decades old bias against national health care. Please take every opportunity with regards to accepting all invites from radio or Tv hosts!
Given the history you've outlined here, can you fast forward to comment/educate us on todays Medicare Advantage being sold to retirees? I'm dubious about this because it adds private, for profit, corporate business to our government guaranteed, "old age" health insurance.
If you have already written about this, please post a link?
https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-medicare-advantage-ripoff-that-462
Yay! Thank you!
Jeese. we all need to do a sweat lodge or crawl on hands and knees to some lofty shrine to shirk off this grossness. What do you do, Thom, to rid yourself of the pollution of this knowledge? I had to quit at "incapables." Only about half way! The African-descended descended on San Francisco Bay as part of the "War Effort," WWII. My Mom (perhaps infamous, here in Hartmannland) thought she was so above that racist stuff, while making speeches about how Africans were lazy because where they came from, bananas would just fall into their mouths. Seriously. I have to get up my nerve to read the rest of your retrospective....